Eric
"This place is oddly peaceful" Moria muttered. Her armor was blindingly reflective with the sunlight shining overhead.
Gage grunted.
That place up ahead… Doesn't look very advanced. I wonder…
Upon reaching the outside wooden walls of the village, his speculations were proven, much to his surprise.
"Stop. Right. There!" a voice boomed. Men appeared on top of the wooden pike walls, all bearing loaded crossbows.
Moria shrugged. "Not like their toothpicks could even annoy me anyways." she muttered, unslinging her rifle. Gage halted, frowning uncomfortably at the fifteen-foot high wall of sharpened pikes.
The man who has stopped them had a slim build, and wisps of body hair sticking out from under his sleeveless shirt. His voice sounded like a southern accent, which Eric was confused upon how he'd have that. The man had the crossbow centered at them, the other men in what Eric assumed was their militia. Eric was so uneasy by having a lethal weapon directed at him,
he hadn't noticed his hand slowly drifting toward his revolver on his hip until his fingers gripped the cold metal handle firmly.
"State yer business." The man rattled from behind his crossbow.
Eric spoke up. "We're just came through that ancient gateway. I'd like to know where we are."
Most of the men looked shocked at this, and shuffled among themselves uneasily, whispering about the gateway, Eric assumed.
"Now how'm I s'possed to believe that?" The voice asked.
Eric frowned. "Do you know anything about that portal?"
The man shook his head, his bandana sliding off of his head slowly.
Moria laughed. "You guys got guns?" She asked, already knowing the answer.
The man lowered his crossbow. "What's a gun-"
Moria fired off a burst of rounds into the air, startling the archers and causing some of the men to flee back behind the wall.
"That." She said, lowering her rifle in satisfaction, "Is a gun." she said triumphantly.
The archer was pale.
"Y-you haven't p-possibly killed any of them flyin' sharks with it, have ya?" he managed.
Eric tilted his head. "Flying...sharks?"
The accented archer nodded quickly. "You had've seen at least ONE of em', right? Big, flying, mean-lookin'?"
Moria, Eric, and Gage all shook their heads slowly, confused.
The archer sighed, then gestured to them. "Com'on inside then. We caught one yesterday, and the boys just came back with another one. We've finally figured out how to keep em' from escaping."
Moria and Gage both glanced at Eric questioningly. He nodded toward the wooden gate, and they walked into the village as the gates opened inward.
"Well this is already interesting." Moria muttered.
The inside of the walls wasn't very surprising, dotted with huts and small cabins, symboling they had probably only obtained their crossbows through trade, for it seemed fairly unlikely they had made the weapons themselves. A small ballista was set up at the back of the village, but it was set up like an organ gun, meant to fire multiple shots of arrows at once for maximum coverage.
"This artillery…" Eric trailed off.
"Old tech." Moria muttered, nodding.
"What's this place supposed to be, the Shire's older cousin?" Eric asked, wrinkling his nose at the stench of animal pens.
The man with the bandana shrugged. "I dunno what that is." He grunted.
Right.
They were led to the center of the village, after noting the strange looks they earned from its inhabitants.
In what Eric could only assume was the square of the village, was two sturdy-looking copper cages, both ridiculously large in size.
Or, they seemed ridiculously large, until Eric realized each one's contents.
Moria beat him to it. "Dragons? Since when did they think those were flying sharks?"
Gage's eyes widened. He pointed at the cage to the right side of the square, which had a tan-colored dragon, which was circling in his cage furiously as he lashed his barbed tail.
This isn't right.
"Hey, why are those dragons in cages?" Eric asked.
He very well knew of their existence, for a dragon named Adelia had actually entered the rebellion service somewhat close to a year ago, along with an Avali called Acari.
Dragons were….somewhat hard to find, as they rarely actually found another to have offspring with, so they were relatively endangered in Eric's mind. Just being able to see two in one place was usually considered a sign of increased luck.
The man with the bandana turned around, eyeing him quizzically. "What the 'ell is a dragon?"
Moria pointed to the cages in frustration. "Your 'flying sharks', genius. Why are you imprisoning them? They're not animals."
He spat on the ground. "The hell they aren't! You haven't seen how many of em' killed off our traders now have ya?"
Eric rubbed his chin. "How common are they?" He said, intrigued.
"Around as common as a fly." The archer spat.
"Fascinating." Gage muttered.
Moria glanced at Gage suspiciously, then turned back to the archer. "You have to let them go!"
The man shook his head firmly. "Nah. They're too hard to catch as it is."
"But they're sentient. This is considered, I dunno, unnecessary imprisonment?" Eric said, crossing his arms.
"Hey, if you can prove to me they think n' stuff like that, I'll think about let'n em' go. But until then, they stay in those cages there." The archer amended.
"Whatever." Eric muttered, walking off to the cages.
I mean, I remember talking with Adelia once. She was pretty good at speaking, so how would these dragons be any different?
Moria followed him, Gage walking behind her with an anxious expression.
"If we can't convince him, I'm busting them out myself. Crossbows are nothing compared to titanium." She grumbled.
"But what if we do convince him? That could mean they might stop defending themselves from dragons, which they probably don't think humans are sentient either." Eric said.
Moria nodded. "There's a good chance of that."
They stood before the first copper cage, and the sand-colored dragon stopped pacing.
"Wait, I recognize you." He said cooly, settling down to eye level with Eric.
Eric shook his head. "I wouldn't believe so. This is my first visit."
The dragon chuckled. "As it is mine. Eric, no? Allied with the Epsilon Expanse rebellion. Ah, yes, I DO remember you."
Eric was dumbfounded. "How did you know?"
The dragon's eyes narrowed. "Because, as I said before, I know you. I'm not from here, nor was originally like," He looked down at his talons. "-this. I was with the United Space Corporate Military."
"The U.S.C.M." Moria grumbled. "We'll learn nothing from this guy. Let's go." she said, beginning to walk away.
"Hold on," Eric called.
"Who are you? More specifically, who WERE you?"
The pale dragon chuckled. "Handsome, charming, the best." He gloated.
Eric glared. "That doesn't give much information."
The dragon sighed. "Leighton, A.K.A. Agent Skyline, specialty operations and a few off-duty mercenary projects. I came for probably the same reason you did. The operator. Milo. You're not the only one looking for him."
"The passcodes." Eric confirmed grimly.
"Yes. It appears the chairman doesn't want him to reveal those codes to outside sources, and he's far too busy to arrange any time to change any of these codes, for they are far too complex." Leighton amended.
"It's too time consuming." Eric agreed.
"Right."
Eric smirked. "So uh, how'd you end up here?"
The dragon mercenary smiled a toothy grin. "Ahhh, yes. You see, Milo wasn't the ONLY part of my paycheck. Others included Cuia, and-"
"My brother." Eric interrupted.
"Exactly. I had used some previously acquired knowledge and successfully sided myself with a queen of one of the leading factions, as long as I ensured her crown remained safe."
Eric grinned. "Aaaaand I'm assuming you didn't."
"Nope. I thought I had, but your brother put a big enough show that the guards didn't pay much attention to any security threats outside the palace, allowing Cuia and his….friends, whatever he calls them, to sneak in and retrieve Crusoe, and as soon as they left, Scarlet was somehow wounded exactly in the way she'd been in the original story."
Eric's eyes widened. "Wait, story?"
Leighton glared at him. "You activated the PDA and didn't read the destination, didn't you? Bah. Anyways, welcome to Pyrrhia! Land of constant wars and lunar mishaps. Enjoy your stay. I'd like to leave, please." He said sarcastically.
"Pyrrhia. Huh. Where's that?" Eric asked.
Leighton covered his eyes with his talons. "Seriously, why is your brother such a nerd and you haven't heard a word of what he rambles out 75% of the time?"
Eric shrugged. "He ran away when he was twelve."
"That's fair."
Eric nodded. "I need to know what I'm up against, if you please."
Leighton rolled his eyes. "Oh, where do I start?"
"Whatever is the weakest, maybe?" Eric asked.
"Oh, they're all terribly balanced, there's no such thing as weakest."
"Oh."
(Heck guys, I'm just gonna like….. Time skip? Because this part's pretty pointless.)
Moria leaned against the cage as the SandWing explained all the dragon 'tribes' of Pyrrhia, Gage sitting criss-crossed like a preschooler and Eric listening intently as he stood perfectly still, only adjusting his standing form every once and awhile.
Eric noted the archer watching from a distance, obviously confused upon why they'd been standing there talking to something that he thought wasn't sentient.
"So, anyways, I followed Jyn after being defeated by him, wanting to get some last-second revenge, and they had already almost left. Actually," he stopped, tapping his chin thoughtfully.
"I swear I saw another group of people sneaking up on them too. Hmm. Anyways, the portal exploded, yadda yadda, and I wake up here. Not exactly sure what happened, but I'm assuming something to do with Milo's S.M. Enhanced bracelet. That portal opened with an oddly excessive electrical voltage, and from what I've heard, those things can be shocked and chain the matrix's effects through anybody within one-hundred yards, sometimes more."
"So that means-" Moria began.
"That Milo and my brother are both dragons possibly, yes." Eric finished with a grim smile, knowing this at least;
A: Made things harder,
And B: Was one of Crusoe's fantasies.
"Yeah…" Moria mumbled, seemingly troubled by this.
Weird.
"So," Leighton continued. "How about getting me and whoever that is out of here?" he said, jerking his head toward the other cage.
Inside was a darker drown dragon, his back covered in wounds as if he'd been in a fight for his life. An involuntary shudder ran through Eric's body at the sight of the crusted blood coating the dragon's back.
"Where's he from?" Eric asked.
Leighton shrugged. "Dunno. Village guys came through with him during last night's storm. And a bad one at that, yeesh."
Eric tried using what Leighton had told him to identify the dragon's tribe. "Uh, he's a…. MudWing, right?"
"Yup."
The archer began walking towards them, a confused expression washed over his face.
"Oh boy, this guy." Leighton muttered.
Moria turned to face the archer, but he ignored her and walked straight for Eric.
"What exactly are you even doin' here? Tryin' to steal my prize for that other town protected by a stone wall, because they're so much better than us?"
Eric shook his head. "No. We came through the gateway, what part of that didn't you understand?"
The archer shook head head disbelievingly. "It sounds too good to be true. Those vagabonds have been tryin' to steal anything they can get their hands on that we make. And judgin' by yer strange garments and knights apparel, you fellers aren't from around here." He accused.
"Excuse me, knight's apparel?" Moria asked, her voice gaining a deadly edge.
Gage stood up, his expression uneasy like his movements.
The archer unclipped his crossbow from his side. "I'm detaining ya for tryin' to steal fro-"
Moria kicked the crossbow out of his hands, then headbutted him before he could even cry out, which would be painful, since, you know, Spartan armor.
"Well this is getting interesting." Leighton muttered. Moria ignored him, shooting the lock off the cage. "We're leaving." She growled. Gage shrugged, following her to the other cage. Eric watched Leighton leave the cage, shaking out his wings and sending small gusts of wind into Eric. "Ahhhhh, that's so much better." he rumbled.
Shouts of men echoed from the walls, obviously warning about the dragon having been set loose at the center of the village.
Moria blasted open the second cage door, motioning to Gage to stand guard as she tried to rouse the wounded dragon.
Men spilled into the village square, attempting to surround the cages with their pikes and crossbows. Eric saw three men pushing the ballista into position.
Oh boy.
"We need to leave soon, or we'll be shooting our way of this one…" Eric muttered, running over to join Moria.
"Come on, wake up you lizard!" She yelled, slapping the dragon's head.
Eric flinched as an arrow flew past his ear, having heard the air moving next to it.
"They're firing at us!" He grunted, diving behind a wooden cart.
Moria fired back, killing two archers instantly in a burst of rounds. Arrows ricocheted harmlessly off her white armor, but she still dodged most of them out of reflexes. Gage took Moria's job of trying to wake the dragon, which he wasn't having much luck with.
The pikemen advanced, but were still terribly outmatched, having only armor mostly composed of cotton and leather. Eric peeked out over the cart and managed to shoot a man in the knee, sending him down, and seconds later the man was screaming in pain as Eric ducked back down to avoid oncoming arrows. Leighton began helping Gage in waking the MudWing, grunting involuntarily at arrows that pelted his scales continuously.
Moria dodged a pike that was thrust at her in a man's charge, then punched his helm hard enough to send it flying off. (Oh boy, Mjolnir Armor, huh kids?)
"We might wanna hurry!" She yelled, knocking another pikeman away with the stock of her rifle.
Leighton lost it. "Wake the hell up, dammit!" He nipped the MudWing's ear with his teeth, sending him reeling to the back of the cage with a yelp.
He looked around, alarmed. "Where am I? AH! Who are you and how did I get here?"
Leighton growled. "We'll explain later, let's go!"
With that, the two dragons thundered through the front entrance, ignoring the multiple wounds they gained on the way out.
"Well, there goes our ride," Eric muttered, firing two more shots from his revolver into the regrouping militia.
"Think we should have planned ahead?" Moria asked, sliding behind the cart beside him.
"Yeah… Hey, where's Gage?"
His question was answered as Gage burst through the grouped militants on horseback, scattering men and weapons on the ground.
"Oh." The horse galloped toward them, Gage's massive backpack bouncing up and down frantically. Gage grabbed Eric by the back of his jacket, pulling him up mid-gallop as Moria followed, putting sprinting through the dazed guards after them.
(Because Mjolnir gear would've probably injured the horsey.)
Leighton and the other dragon had advanced ahead, farther south where Gage reined the horse to a halt, took off it's bridle, and set it free.
"Wait, we could've used that…" Eric whined halfheartedly, sighing as the horse trotted away.
Gage shrugged, smirking.
Leighton was busy in conversation. "Wait, what? You're one of Cuia's friends, aren't you?"
The MudWing flinched. "Yeeeeaahhh, we kinda hoped to leave but uh-"
"The gateway exploded." Leighton finished. "Yeah, I was there. As you can see." he said, waving his claws at his pale yellow body.
"Yeah. Wait, who are you?" The MudWing asked, tilting his head curiously.
Leighton sighed. "Don't freak out. It's Leighton."
The MudWing backed away. "N-no. Stay away from me."
Leighton shrugged helplessly, remaining motionless.
Eric frowned. "Who are you?" he asked, holstering his .500 revolver.
The MudWing didn't dare draw his eyes away from the mercenary he probably feared would attack him at any moment. "Jake Rainsford. ERT prototype beta test soldier #67" he said, as if he'd repeated this sentence a thousand times.
"Huh. And what's the last thing you were doing before you woke up again?"
"Well," he huffed. "Fighting another dragon who looked like me. Except like, savage. Are all dragons like that?"
Leighton shook his head quickly. "No. And from what I'm hearing, I'm hoping it's not what I think it is."
Ooh boy.